Disclaimer and Other Stuff

This blog is maintained by Magwitch, an Emgergency Care Practitioner working for an NHS ambulance trust in the Home Counties. Magwitch has been a paramedic for over a decade and an ECP for a year. This blog is about life on the front line of pre-hospital emergency care; the joys and pitfalls of trying to save lives and keep patients out of hospital.

Disclaimer:

All opinions expressed in this blog are Magwitch’s alone and in no way represent the views, opinions, mandates or any other edict of the management, staff or colleagues of the ambulance service for which Magwitch works. Nor do they claim to represent any opinions of the NHS or UK government. In fact most of the opinions are probably ill-informed and are more than likely based on heresay and rumour. None of the facts included have been carefully checked and are therefore probably wrong.

All names, places and dates have been changed to protect the innocent, the guilty and anyone else with even a passing association to any of the calls alluded to. It’s also to stop Magwitch’s arse being kicked by the great and good who run the NHS, and in particular, the amublance service Magwitch works for .

Previously:

Magwitch used to carry a soapbox around on the back of the ambulance. This would be brought out at every possible occasion when someone showed an interest in listening to Magwitch ‘sounding off’. Now Magwitch gets stuck on a response car most days so the soap box has had to go. It’s been replaced by this blog – heaven help us all!

The Title:

Although ECPs are not doctors, or anything close to, they are advised to be as professional as possible. To this end they are encouraged to indentify the differential diagnoses for the patients they see. This is essentially a list of all the conditions they think it might be. More often than not Magwitch gets completely confused and fails to come up with anything substantial so, at the bottom of the clinical form, the diagnosis is marked as N.F.I. (no f**king idea).

Contact:

If you feel inclined to drop me a line – magwitch the dog (all one word) at yahoo dot co dot uk.

Hi Magwitch
Just a quick reply to your blog.
came across it while researching my dissertation
i was an “Ambulanceman” ( a term still endearing to me and now much underused) for 28 years before becoming an ECP and jumping into the relative sanity that is the PCT
It was the very ponts that you raise and that frustrate you so that made me leave the glorious world of the Emergency services and jump ship to the PCT.
My proudest acheivment is that the shite hawks could never get me to work the RRV or whater it is they call it now.
Well done , enjoyed your site